Weekend

This Weekend

I played tourist in Dublin this weekend. I went to the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle, which has a huge collection of religious manuscripts. Unfortunately, one of their collections is currently unavailable to the public, so I was a little disappointed.

I also just wandered around Grafton Street (a pedestrian shopping area) and St. Stephen's Green (a gorgeous park) and took pictures.

Classes

During one of my classes, Tommy McKearney, a former member of the IRA, came in to talk to us. I kept getting struck by the fact that he's exactly the same age as Dad (they were both born in 1952), but Mr. McKearney looks at least 10 years older. He joined the IRA when he was 18, and spent from 1977 to 1993 in prison. He spent 53 days on a hunger strike in 1980.

My opinions on Northern Ireland change a little everyday. When I first got here, I didn't know very much and thought it was mostly just sectarian violence. I learned it was rather a matter of civil rights and my automatic reaction was that, well, gaining basic civil rights is an excellent cause and excuses a lot.

But both sides, loyalist and republican, have ties to groups I find abhorrent, and tactics that I find inexcusable.

It makes it even harder to decide what my opinion is when you find out that everyone involved is just human.

In the News

If you've been following the current news for Northern Ireland, today is the expiration date for Sinn Fein and the DUP to form a power sharing government. It's not happening. No violence, but still no resolution.